u/Professional_Fan6761

HILS HZ7 Tips and Small Review

I’m posting a link to a YouTube video I made documenting some tips and tricks regarding the HILS HZ7 as well as some review stuff. If you saw my previous post about this guitar this is sort of a follow-up, and it includes some helpful information for restringing and “improving” the tuner keys.

I’m NOT posting this to grow a channel or anything but to aid in the knowledge about this guitar.

I hope it’s helpful. I don’t think this is against Community Rules, I apologize if it is.

I can’t post the whole video here because it’s long and the file size is too large. It’s by no means professional and has no real editing in it but I try to be as straightforward as I can be. At the time I’m posting this the video is available but the quality is still uploading so the 4K video may not be available for a bit.

Got it for $1200 due to the paint chip. Still plays perfectly. Just finished a set up on it and I’m so happy I got it. Definitely an impulse purchase but I couldn’t pass it up when the guy at GC said he’d knock $400 off.

Edit: I thought some of you might find this interesting. So before I bought this I actually considered the Ibanez Prestige AZ2402 (they had used one there in super good condition) and I choose this one since it had better pickup options imo. If you know the AZ and TOD you know they’re really similar. I chose the TOD because

1. I preferred the pickup voices of the TOD
2. he TOD has Fishman active pickups which I wanted to try out
3. the TOD is cheaper even without the discount
4. the Tree of Death inlay is so freaking cool compared to a plain fretboard.

I'm new to posting on here but I got this recently so I thought I would tell my thoughts on it with the hopes that it might be helpful for those looking into this guitar. I am by no means a professional reviewer or musician but I am regular person who decided to buy this because I wanted a 7-String MS guitar.

This is the HILS HZ7 in Honey Yellow with upgraded tuner bearings (more on that later)

First impressions: this guitar is small, light, comfortable, and loud.

It uses the Strandberg style ergo body but with the addition of little feet so you can stand it up. Having played some Strandberg's this body feels ever so slightly bigger, which I appreciate. As far as size comparisons the guitar I've pictured next to it is the LTD EC-256. It sort of looks big in that photo but it feels quite small in person.

This guitar plays and feels like a regular 6 string electric guitar despite the 7th string and the fanned frets. This is my first fanned fret guitar and it feels very approachable and easy to play. The neck is similar to a Sterling JP60 style neck - kind of flat and thin. The weight of the guitar feels excellent. It's not too light and definitely not heavy.

This guitar is loud. This happens to be my first experience with active pickups and they are hot. I had to back the bridge to around 3.75mm at the B string and 2.5mm at the E string. The neck is at a similar at 3.85mm at the B string and 3.5mm at the E string. Keep in mind these heights are to my preference and playing set up. I don't know the original heights but they were probably within the 1.5-2.5mm range if I were to guess. The coil-split isn't super drastic in my opinion but it is an available feature to use. The pickups carry a lot of low end so EQ is advised for these. I'd probably upgrade the pickups at some point but these are definitely livable for a good while.

Moving to setup. I noticed nothing bad with the set up. The action feels good and the frets are leveled. I've noticed no terrible buzzing. The action would probably be considered high to some people but the setup is 100% playable out of the box. Essentially, there is nothing that makes this unplayable. It also comes with the tools in the picture. I don't know why my spoke adjustment tool is bent but it came like that.

I mentioned the upgraded tuner bearings earlier. I would highly recommend this. The tuning knobs can still feel stiff even with these so I imagine they're even stiffer without them. It's a fairly cheap upgrade but it can reduce the amount of down-tunability because of how thick the whole set up is. HILS states that the bearings can be used without washers depending on preference. On that note, this guitar also stays in tune super well. I've had no issues with sustain or tuning stability since I started using it. It can pretty comfortably switch between tunings within a step or 2 without a hitch.

Now for some, not bad things but not good things either. My guitar had the pickup selector switch backwards. The forward position was the bridge and the rear position was the neck. This was obviously a super easy fix, just had to turn the switch 180, but its odd that it passed QC like that especially since they do an "inspection checklist."

Next thing is these small hairline paint cracks that have formed the bridge mounting screws. It's probably hard to see in the pictures, my apologies. It DID NOT come from factory like this but they did appear after a day or two of playing. I think if you got the sparkle black color you would never notice this. I personally don't care since I couldn't see any wood cracking or splitting and honestly you can't see them from more than a 6" away, but I thought you guys might like to know that. I also have not messed with the bridge at all besides tuning, so my guess is that this is from the tension of the strings.

And if it wasn't clear, neither of these issues have hurt or had a negative impact on the playability of the guitar. The electrics work perfectly fine and the bridge operates exactly as it should.

Other than those 2 quality things, it's a pretty neat guitar and it's definitely more approachable than a Strandberg as far as price. It plays easily and the extra little features like a bone nut and stainless frets are a welcome addition at this price point. The ability to hang this on a standard wall hanger and 'leanability' from the feet is a neat feature as well. I'm not super active on here but if you have questions I'll do my best to answer them.